More Coastal Comics

January 1998

Thunderbolts #10

Yeah, I know ads like this aren’t super exciting, but I’m a historian and a completist, so I feel compelled to share all the ads from the books I’ve scanned.

Anyway, here we’re visiting East Coast Comics again, almost a decade after the last ad I published from them. And I thought I had a lot of tags last time – well, I think I broke my record again, because in addition to all the regular series, they also listed all sorts of limited series and special sets!

I’m sure a lot of these titles can be found in quarter bins today, but I wonder just how many of them have skyrocked in value.

 

Do you enjoy reading Comic Book Ads? If so, please consider supporting me by clicking here for my Amazon link – I’ll get a percentage from everything you order! Thanks!

Ain’t No Party Like a Deadpool Party!

January 1998

Thunderbolts #10

I wasn’t really into the whole card fad in the ’90s (either trading cards or card games), so a couple things surprised me about this ad: 1) The section for Image is actually advertising a game; 2) There was a subset of X-Men cards called “Deadpool Party”!

Upon doing a little research, it appears that Image, Marvel, and DC all had versions of the OverPower card game, which was kind of similar to Magic.

And as far as the Deadpool Party – that just sounds cool! While they would be very cool to have, a quick check of eBay shows that they’re going for about $10 each, so I think I’ll pass. However, on an amusing note, when I Googled “Deadpool party cards” I got a bunch of results for children’s party invitations featuring Deadpool – really, people?! Even I, a hardcore fan of Deadpool, think it’s wildly inappropriate for little Gavin to have a Deadpool-themed seventh birthday party! Though now that I think about it, I am generally a fan of things that are wildly inappropriate, so maybe it would be entertaining!

 

Do you enjoy reading Comic Book Ads? If so, please consider supporting me by clicking here for my Amazon link – I’ll get a percentage from everything you order! Thanks!

Heroes Return… To Your Mailbox!

January 1998

Thunderbolts #10

It’s another subscription page – this time from 1998. This one seemed to have far fewer titles than other subscription pages, but upon comparing it to one from 1997, I guess they’re actually pretty close.

X-Men aren’t quite as dominant in this one as they were in the previous year, and the number of Star Trek titles has been cut in half – and speaking of cutting Star Trek in half, here they have “Star Trek: Star Fleet Academy” listed as one of the titles – all good Trekkies should know that Starfleet is one word!

So at this point, we’ve got subscription prices ranging from $1.66 to $1.83 per issue (or $1.25 for Marvel Vision) at a time when cover price for comics was $1.99. While saving any money is always a good thing, that’s only a discount of 8% to 16%. Without doing any official research on this, I’d say that this is probably a low point (or close to it) for subscription savings.

 

Do you enjoy reading Comic Book Ads? If so, please consider supporting me by clicking here for my Amazon link – I’ll get a percentage from everything you order! Thanks!

It’s Chaos! It’s Insanity! It’s…

January 1997 (1996)

Deadpool #1

This is it – the final ad I’ve got to post from Deadpool #1, making this the first book that I’ve closed out! So what have we got here? Bedlam, a video game about preventing the imminent destruction of mankind.

This ad doesn’t tell you a whole lot about the game, but at least it’s more descriptive than WCW!

It’s Independence Day! Again!

January 1997 (1996)

Deadpool #1

Independence Day! The day itself is still a week and a half away, but the movie comes out today! To celebrate that fact, here’s an ad for the video release of the original.

Hard to believe this movie came out 20 years ago, huh?

Is That a Rocket in Your Jockey, Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

January 1997 (1996)

Deadpool #1

At first glance, Rocket Jockey looks a bit like pod racing from “Star Wars: Episode I” (but actually came out first!), but upon closer inspection, actually sounds pretty badass:

“…I will not hold Rocket Jockey liable for my being decapitated by another jockey’s cable, crushed against the hood of another rocket, burnt beyond recognition by jet exhaust, or other injuries to myself or others et al.”

Nice! I only wish there had been action like that in “Episode I”!

 

Do you enjoy reading Comic Book Ads? If so, please consider supporting me by clicking here for my Amazon link – I’ll get a percentage from everything you order! Thanks!

My Subscription-Sense Is Tingling!

January 1997

Deadpool #1

Much like the Columbia House ad featured in an earlier post, I think that ads for comic subscriptions are like snapshots in time, showing you a little glimpse of what was going on at the time. Here’s a Marvel subscription page from 1997.

I like the statement “YES, YOU CAN PHOTOCOPY THIS AD!” – I guess they finally realized that people don’t want to mangle their comic books just to redeem an offer!

An Entirely Different Type of Hero

January 1997 (1996)

Deadpool #1

Personally, I’ve always seen comics and sports as two forms of entertainment on entirely opposite ends of the spectrum. I know that there must be some comics nerds who also watch sports, and some sports jocks who also read comics, but the idea just seems kind of foreign to me. That’s why this ad for a set of Michael Jordan videos just felt really out of place to me when I found it in the pages of Deadpool.

I should probably make some joke about this deal being a slam dunk or something like that, but I just can’t think of anything good at the moment. Feel free to do better in the comments!

 

Do you enjoy reading Comic Book Ads? If so, please consider supporting me by clicking here for my Amazon link – I’ll get a percentage from everything you order! Thanks!

Violence and Bloodshed – Finally an Appropriate Ad in Deadpool!

January 1997

Deadpool #1

Did you see Deadpool last night? Did you love it as much as I did?? Yep, it was everything I hoped it would be… and so much more!

In celebration of all of the glorious violence and bloodshed in the movie, I’m sharing an ad that’s full of violence and bloodshed – Fighting Vipers, a Sega Saturn game.

With some of its selling points being “certifiably psychotic characters,” and “the most vicious streetfighters ever to terrorize arcades,” to me this ad seemed the most at home in Deadpool (just slightly more than 101 Dalmatians…).

Now go to the nearest theater and see Deadpool – repeatedly!

Hopefully By “Hot” They Don’t Mean Stolen…

January 1997

Deadpool #1

Welcome to post #3 in my Deadpool mini-marathon! The movie is only a couple days away!! Isn’t this the most exciting thing ever?!?!?

OK, I need to calm down. Anyway, here’s something else to get excited about – a contest where you can win remote control cars from Radio Shack!

And not only can you win the cars, you can also appear in your very own custom Marvel comic – The Adventures of Radio Kid! If that’s not excitement, I don’t know what is!

Enter now!!

 

Do you enjoy reading Comic Book Ads? If so, please consider supporting me by clicking here for my Amazon link – I’ll get a percentage from everything you order! Thanks!